I thought I’d try out something new today: I have virtually no interest in sport, as my figure can attest, but I do like horses, and I like the challenge of photographing a moving target – so I decided to pay a visit to the Broadway Horse Trials, to see if it might be fun to to photograph the cross-country course.
It didn’t take me long to spot a photogenic obstacle, and then all I had to do was listen for the whistle as a horse and rider approached, raise the camera, and get a reasonably focused image of them in mid-air. I say that as though I found it easy. It wasn’t especially easy, partly because the light came and went, but largely because of horse and rider unpredictability and photographer incompetence. But I did find it extremely addictive, and I’m looking forward to having another go at this as soon as possible.
I’ve culled my shots ruthlessly this evening, on the basis of either the horse’s or the rider’s face being out of focus, but I’ve still struggled to decide which of my keepers to post. In the end I’ve gone for this one because the horse is handsome and I like the eye contact I had from the rider – even if it does look as though she was giving me a piece of her mind!